Evaluation of Psychiatric High and Intensive Care

Since 2010 Belgium’s mental healthcare is transforming towards a functional model of community based care. As in other European countries, given this paradigm shift, community- and hospital-level efforts are made to reinforce psychiatric inpatient services to provide more intensive care for patients with severe mental illness. In 2019, commissioned by the federal government, the implementation of High and Intensive Care units (HIC’s) – following the Dutch model -  started in 9 psychiatric hospitals. The aim of HIC is to treat patients effectively, in a humane and safe way, with as little coercion as possible and to try to keep the duration of stay as short as possible with attention to continuity of care. In the EPHIC study, the main goals are to (1) investigate the types of patients treated in these settings, (2) to analyse patient & family members' and healthcare professionals' self-reported experiences in this innovational tratment model, (3) to investigate health-economic aspects of these treatment facilities, and (4) to formulate recommendations for a long-term and sustainable policy of the treatment of patients with SMI.